National Digital Policies and Projects
under the New Normal Era
Pathomdanai Ponjan, Phd.
yoddoy@gmail.com
Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, Thailand
9 December 2021

01 Digital Transformation and its

Contentprogress in the Covid-19 pandemic

02 IT initiatives for high-priority
social issues and their results
for measuring
IT Policy and its progress in theCOVID-19 pandemic

03 Progress and Challenges of theDigital Transformation Roadmap

Digital Transformation andits progress in the Covid-19pandemicOECD initiated the framework for digital economy outlook:‘Digital Economy Outlook’ follows the framework on 8 digitaldimensions on transformation and update the latest digitaldevelopment comparing among the OECD members. (Thailand iscurrently a participant)Thailand’s Pilot project on phase 1 (2018-9)
Area based for 3 provinces (Western region) using the datafrom the mobile service providers, those are the behavioral
usage, not survey, by masking all privacy data.
Office of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
and ONDE, MDES

Thailand’s Digital Economy Outlook 2020 phase 2
Try to extend the scope to be all over the country with survey
in all 8 digital dimensions following OECD, with someindicators to be studied in the next phase.

Phase 1 for 2019 (B.E. 2562) and Phase 2 for 2020 B.E. 2563
Latest DEO2020 by OECD including the Thailand data of 2019, while
the digital economy outlook phase 2 for Thailand, providing 2020 survey
data including the Covid-19 impacts on digital development concerning
OECD indicators. Both OECD’s DEO2020 and Thai DEO2020 arereleased at the end of Nov 2020 and early Dec 2020, consecutively.

OECD recognized Thailand Digital Outlook 2020:
In Committee of Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) 85th meeting last week(Dec 2nd), the Thailand Digital Outlook 2020 was recognized & became
one of the examples to be explored in the OECD’s Going digital toolkit.

Thailand’s Digital Outlook 2020 phase 2
Main results of DEO 2020 phase 2 for Thailand was alsopresented in the OECD’s workshop “Measuring DigitalTransformation” end of recent May, together with World Bank,UNESCO’s ROAM-X, and IMD’s indicators
Office of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)and ONDE, MDES

Thailand’s Digital Outlook 2021 phase 3
Currently, the compilation of phase 3 is in progress, withexpectation for the year-on-year comparison whole country

Phase 4 is to be explored:
Apart from the Covid-19 impacts on digital development concerning
OECD indicators, follow-up on e-waste and AI development, including
the details on digital workforce are considered.

Access

UsageSource: ONDE, see www.onde.go.thTrustWellbeing

Source: ONDE, see www.onde.go.thIT initiatives for high-priority
social issues and their results
for measuring
IT Policy and its progress in the
COVID-19 pandemic

Towards ASEAN Regional Analysis:
Developing MODEST Model formeasuring Digital Impacts on
Economic Growth & Digital Divideand Policy suggestions

Ministry of Digital Economyand Society, Thailand (MDES)
Pathomdanai Ponjan, PhD.

Aims

Source: “Governance Innovation Ver.2 by METI”

MODEST Model [Ministry Of Digital Economy andSociety of Thailand] : (as a quantitative evaluationtool) Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelfor Thailand as pilot caseTargets on the impact scenarios of digital technology on
Economic growth & Digital divide, including Covid &counteracting policies

Aim for policy recommendations for Desired Outcomesand Enabling Actions of ASEAN Digital Master Plan(ADM) 2025 through model simulations

Main Contributions
Quantitative economic tool for impact scenarios. For example, 1% cut of VAT, what
would happen to the macro economy and sectoral effects in % changes, e.g. GDP
rises 0.02 %, exports drop 0.1 % as a consequence.

1. Scenarios of impacts

2. Normative OPTIONS

3. Catalyst for ASEAN

Suggests scenarios of impacts

Quantitative results suggest options forThorough process as pilot case for other members

from shocks and policy

decision making on policy recommendation.

to grasp and go for capacity building andsimulations as foresights

further development

Desired Outcomes Impacts by external & policy tests Evaluation & policy designs
Enabledigitalinclusion

Grow &strengthen
digitalservices

MODEST
model

Policysuggestion &Policy
redesign orcounterfeit
tests

DO1: Actionsof ADM
2025
prioritised tospeed
ASEAN'srecoveryfrom
COVID-19

Increaseproductivity& economic
growthCondition Analyses

Actual impacts on targets

ActualImplementation &Reimplementation
Macro & Micro
Evaluation toolon targets for
economic growthand digital divide
Scenarios

ADM2025 Add-ons

Monitoring/Assessment

Test simulation:
Macro Results and top-down provincial effects on GPP/digital divide
KAMPHA…
PHETCH…
NANNONGB…
SAKONN…
PHICHITTAKSURINKHONKA…
UBONRA…
SUPHAN…
PATTANIUTHAIT…
NAKHON…
MUKDA…
CHAINATCHACH…
NAKHON…
CHONB…
NONTHA…
CHUMP…
SURATT…
TRANG
SAMUTP…
KRABI
PHUKET-0.0100-0.00500.00000.00500.00400.00200.0000-0.0020-0.0040-0.0060

Figure 1.2 Contribution to change
in GDP (Exp.)

0.0036-0.0002-0.0015-0.0037

GDP
Imports
Exports
StocksGovernment
Investment
Consumption-0.0050

0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0

0.00000.00500.0117-0.0012GDP-0.0022

GDP
deflatorExchangerate (real)-0.0080-0.0057-0.0079

Returns to Employment Terms ofcapital
Trade (ToT)MODEST Development Process
Thematic change for digital contribution and digital divide (1 Year: 1st Quarter 2022 – 4th Quarter 2022)

ADB: PRISM Model as main reference
Poverty Reduction study of 8 countries in Asia

Database Development
Use Input-Output Table and DESA
as core database
With SES, LFS, Survey for divide dimension(Mainly from NSO)DESA is digital
economy satellite
accounts: data ondigital categorization

Impact Scenarios
Study of impact in scenarios,
including policy impacts.

Integrating CGE – Micro-sim – Mapping (GIS)CGE Model construction
MODEST model in PRISM, tailor-madefor digital impacts on macro & sectoral
study.

All digital dimension to be taken into
account and analyzed, with continuingrevision of all relevant digital definitions,with noted limitations

Micro-simulation
Digital divide extension with the SES,
LFS, Survey data, calculating the dividerelated indicesTowards ASEAN
regional analysis
Pilot case of MODEST
model on digital impacts
with simple policy
scenarios on digital
contribution & digital divide
Lesson Reviews for ASEAN& next episode on extensions
to other digital dimensions
and other scenarios

Capacity building and lessons& limits learnt for othermembers; each member has
different kinds of bottlenecks

Long-term Development for ASEAN
After the pilot Modest model, the long-term development will be geared on for the ASEAN regional analysis,
step-by-step.

Further Pilot tests for other countries with DESA or thosepossibly applicable database on digital impacts e.g. Digital
Input-Output Table

DESA development for those still without the applicabledatabase.

Regional analysis of the digital impacts, very long-term
analyses on digital flows within ASEAN with Regional
DESA for ASEAN (or Digital Supply and Use Tables ofASEAN) as the database.

Progress and Challenges ofthe Digital Transformation
Roadmap

Thailand’s digital landscape before Covid-19

2017

17

6 Key Strategies

Thailand’s Digital Economy and Society
Development Plan 2018 – 2037 (B.E. 2561 – 2580)
1. Digital infrastructure
2. Boost the economy with digital technology
3. Equal and equitable society
4. Digital government

6. Trust in the use of digital technology

Challenging issues related to digital transformation
during the pandemic
Trust andElectronic
Commerce- Online health focused consumer
protection- Cross border data
flows

Health,insurance,and safetycompliances

Privacy

Digital & AI
principles on
health- Online/Offline- Personal
Health dataprotection- AI regulations on
health issues- Barriers/
Facilitation- Private Data
linkages- How to deal withhealth using AI

Digital
Literacy &DigitalDivides- Health & Financial
focus (COVID impacts)- Soft infrastructure forhealth & finance- Connectivity & Regional
Integration

S
RECODES Thailand
2023 - 2027

MDES strategic & operation five-year plan
to rearrange the move towards digitaltransformation for Thailand along Covid-19
situation (DRAFT)** Subject to revision by MDESO

Thailand 2023 - 2027

Strategic Sustainability

To gear toward sustainability strategically for Thailand’s digitaltransformation along with SDGs

E Eco-system enhancement

To enhance the eco-system for digital transformation and digitalcompetitiveness of the country

D Data-driven decision

To manage and leverage towards data-driven policies

Organizational Assets

To efficiently utilize the capability of all MDES assets(infrastructure, time, budget, capital, worker, data, sharing resource)

C Collaboration

For MDES internal organizations to unite & collaborate with other external organization with digital technology

E Engagement/Empower

For people to engage in the digital transformation and to empower people with digital literacy

R Resilience

Digital technology is the key for Thailand to bounce back from Covid-19 (economically & socially)

Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES)
Office of the Permanent Secretary: administer overall
matters of the Ministry (MDES)

External & independent but
relatedNational
Cybersecurity

BroadcastingRegulatorDigitalGovernment

Digital Economy Promotion Agency(DEPA): to promote digital economy
with private sector; smart cities,digital skills, digital park

Thai Meteorological Department(TMD): oversee all meteorologicalmatters of the country; to support onweather forecast data for agriculture

Office of the National Digital
Economy and Society Commission(ONDE): oversee National Plan of
Digital Economy and Society; digitaltransformation plan

Thailand Post : oversee all related toPostal services and other related
activities; to support on logistics forecommerce (State enterprise)Electronic Transactions Development
Agency (ETDA): mainly oversee
e-commerce, digital service standard

National Statistical Office (NSO):
mainly oversee national statistics,
survey & related information for thecountry; as focal entity (data)

Office of the Personal Data Protection
Commission (PDPC): mainly oversee
personal data protection policies(to be established 2022)

National Telecom plc (NT): oversee
telecom service potential, 5G &satellites, delivery of digital services
across public health, agriculture andtransportation segment

Five-year Provincial Plan with area-based decentralization (top-down & bottom-up), with NSO as main focal entity for area based management (Draft)*
NSO is the only MDES agency with provincial entities in every province of Thailand; DEPA supports on the matter of smart cities* Subject to revision by MDES

Data services by NSO
TablesAPI
Dashboard
Business Intelligent

GIS

Data Warehouse22

Direction of National Statistic Office

New methodology &New data sourcesStandard & Quality ofOfficial Statistics

Public Relations
Supports on the
Application of Stat/Data• Awareness• Understanding• UsageTrust

NSO Smart Service Data Services by

Government Data
Catalog

Register based
Area-based
Digitaltransformation
management

Survey/Census

ManagementMobile
ApplicationServices

THANK YOU

Ministry of Digital Economy and Society